This transitional page gathers technical observations about the condition
of the self-styled Confederacy of Independent Systems,
the Separatists from the Galactic Republic in the Clone Wars.
The topics covered here may eventually be divided and integrated
with other pages dealing with more general subjects.
However the temporary organisation may turn out to be practically semi-permanent.

Thanks are due to, in alphabetic order:

Michael Wong
for the account of the widespread practical effects of strikes
in automotive manufacturing in North America.

The scrolling prologue to AOTC
describes how several thousand star systems have declared
their separation from the Galactic Republic.
Count Dooku predicts that ten thousand more systems would join his Confederacy immediately,
if the great guilds of galactic commerce would support him openly
[AOTC novel, p.267].
How can this be an appreciable danger to the order of
a galactic civilisation encompassing over one million full member worlds?
[ANH novelisation]
The indirect threat must be far more significant than the direct threat.

Firstly,
there is the issue of political confidence.
Even as early as the blockade of Naboo,
the political processes of the Galactic Republic
had an infamous propensity for total deadlock,
and by the time of the Battle of Geonosis
its institutions are in even more blatant decline.
After centuries of complacent, naive pacifism,
the central government has barely any security forces to call upon.
Sector and planetary governments have to maintain their own self-defence forces.
The benefits of the galactic union must appear theoretical and intangible;
traditional loyalty to the Galactic Republic has probably eroded broadly throughout the galaxy.
When a minority of systems demonstrate defiance,
and escape serious repercussions,
they undermine what little confidence remains.
Systems that are mor timid or more loyal may be tempted into greater acts
of self-interested vanity (if not outright separation)
which must exacerbate general insecurity
and accelerate the ultimate institutional decay.

Secondly,
the separatist systems are likely have strategic value
that outweighs their numbers.
The whole galactic economy operates like a network,
and many worlds must have links of dependency upon the products of other worlds.
The inter-connections of small-scale regional alliances
comprise another important kind of network,
as demonstrated in the Ansion dispute
[The Approaching Storm].
The removal of a few vital nodes from a network
can have profound and seemingly disproportionate effects upon
the efficiency of the remaining system.
(On Earth, a
strike in a factory that produces just a few minor components
has been known to cripple entire nation-wide industries.)
Networks that are not organised according to a large-scale plan
are mathematically even more sensitive to the loss of key nodes,
although the loss of randomly selected nodes is less damaging.

The Separatist systems are probably far from being
randomly removed parts of the galactic network.
Because of self-interest,
they are likely to include some of the most self-sufficient systems in galaxy,
and systems that are well positioned to exploit
the interdependencies of weaker worlds.
Thus the Separatist movement naturally, unconsciously self-selects
its members as the key nodes
in the economic and political network of the galaxy.

The loss of a few agricultural worlds
is likely to plunge many metropolis planets into famine.
The loss of major trading centres is likely to create difficulties
for neighbouring worlds attempting to sell their primary produce and manufactured goods.
The loss of major planets dedicated to administrative and archival functions
is likely to sow confusion and reduce the coherence and coordination of galactic affairs.
The progessive loss of communications nodes,
as Separatist sectors are removed from the galactic HoloNet,
is likely to harm the bandwidth to outlying loyal sectors,
and to increase the sense of mutual isolation and disaffection
between worlds.

One of the great powers banking Count Dooku's separatists
is the intriguingly named Intergalactic Banking Clan.
In what sense are they intergalactic?
The legal territory of the Galactic Republic encompasses the entire galaxy,
although its law is practically unenforceable in some regions
(e.g. Tatooine and Hutt Space) during these decadent times.
The IBC would appear to be even broader.
How far does the banking system extend beyond the galaxy?

Perhaps it is only "intergalactic" in its theoretical claims.
Perhaps the bankers declare their policies and contracts
to be universally enforceable:
binding upon the undiscovered inhabitants of distant galaxies
as well as the Galactic Republic.
(This would be similar to the presumption that certain contracts
signed on Earth may remain legal on other worlds.)

Alternatively, or additionally,
perhaps the Bank Clan literally does maintain a presence
beyond the home galaxy.
They may have outposts or treasuries hidden out in the empty spaces
of the galactic halo of the Republic,
or in more distant regions that are deemed to be in intergalactic space.
They might also have a presence in minor satellite galaxies
that orbit around the Galactic Republic
(like the Large and Small Megellanic Clouds accompanying the Milky Way).
Indeed several satellite galaxies were shown mapped
and recorded in the Jedi Archives, in addition to the main Galaxy.

Let's consider the output of droid factories line the ones seen on Geonosis.
Suppose that
Nf = number of factory lines (equal to one conveyor belt in AOTC),
Nl = number of labour droids
able to build new factory lines,
Ni = number of infantry droids,
Tl = time taken for one factory line to build one labour droid,
Ti = time taken for one factory line to build on infantry droid,
Tf = time taken for a labour droid workforce to build one factory line,
Wf = workforce of labour droids involved in the construction of each factory line.
Suppose that each factory line devotes a fraction of its time (fi)
to infantry production
and the remainder (1-fi) to labour droid production.
Then the construction rates of infantry, labour droids and factory lines are
given by coupled first-order differential equations:

The solution of these coupled equations is exponential growth: the number
of each population ( i, l, f ) doubles in some period.
[This is a classic characteristic of
"von Neumann machines."]
The doubling time is ≈ 0.693 te, where we
define te
= the period during which the population increases by the factor e≈2.71828.
It can be shown that

te
= [ Tl Tf Wf
/ (1 − fi) ]½

We know that battle droids, droidekas etc are output at a pace of Ti = 1 second.
The build-time of a labour droid should be on the same order of magnitude.
But what is the workforce and build-time for a factory assembly line
identical to the ones seen in AOTC?
We need to choose values for Tf and Wf.
Readers are challenged to pick realistic numbers
and see what doubling time is implied.
It is difficult to find
plausible estimates to stretch the doubling time
to longer than 20 days.
For example the army's doubling time is 12 days
if each conveyor belt takes ten thousand labourers 30 days to build,
and if each assembly line then spends 99% of its time making battle droids instead of more labourers.
If the Techno Union supervisors are intelligent,
they would realise the wisdom of producing at least a modest fraction of labour droids.
Then their infantry production would be limited only by access to raw materials and transport.
Ordinarily,
the Separatist army can double its size in very much less than a month,
and possibly in as little as a day.

In order to have any hope of winning the war,
the clones must increase their own population at an accelerated rate too.
They must also manage to detect and destroy enemy factories
at almost the rate at which they're built.
That will be a heroic task considering the vast number of barren worlds
upon which factories may be hidden.

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Curtis Saxton.
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